Sport horses are a subset of the equine population specifically bred and trained for competitive disciplines such as dressage, show jumping, eventing, and racing. These horses are characterized by their athleticism, agility, and endurance. The management and training of sport horses require specialized knowledge to optimize their performance and maintain their health. Factors such as genetics, nutrition, exercise physiology, and veterinary care are integral to their development and success in various sports. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the breeding, training methodologies, performance evaluation, and health management of sport horses within the context of equine sports science.
Møller-Jensen M, Blomquist MH, Mortensen CL, Olsson IKC, Cuevas-Ramos G.The popliteal tendon and muscle are major stabilizers of the human and dog knee, more specifically the postero-lateral corner. Injury to this complex causes posterior knee pain, and it is generally associated with other injured structures such as the lateral collateral ligament, lateral meniscus, and/or the cranial cruciate ligament. The popliteal complex is poorly reported in the horse, and its specific function has not been determined. Nevertheless, it is likely that it is similar to that of other species, and that injury to it could have similar clinical repercussions. Lameness due to stifl...
Dockalova H, Baholet D, Batik A, Zeman L, Horky P.Milk thistle (Silybum marianum) provides several possible benefits for horses, namely anti-inflammatory, antioxidant effects, hepatoprotective, and neuroprotective effects. Silybin exerts also pronounced effects on energy metabolism, that could be useful for sport horses. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of milk thistle seed cakes (in the form of a granulated mixture with barley) on blood biochemical parameters (total protein, albumin, bilirubin, urea, creatinine, ALT, AST, ALP, GGT, LDH, the total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, TAG, BHB, NEFA, creatine kinase, l...
Ničová K, Bartošová J.This study aimed to identify factors that can influence show-jumping performance during top level competitions in the Western European League (2017/2018, CSI5*). The performance data of 144 riders and 222 horses were obtained from video records (FEI TV/ website). Riders with horses achieved a total of 9114 jumping-efforts over 320 obstacles including oxers (n = 142), oxers with water (n = 15), triple bars (n = 6), verticals (n = 136), verticals with water (n = 14) and walls (n = 7). Obstacles in the first round (FR) or in jump off (JO) were standing either as single (n = 6290) or as a combinat...
Uldahl M, Bundgaard L, Dahl J, Clayton HM.This study addresses the presence and location of oral lesions in 342 dressage, show jumping, and eventing horses examined at an obligatory veterinary inspection before competing in the Danish National Championship in 2020. Ulcers in the lip commissures were photographed for subsequent pathological analysis. If a lesion was found at the lip commissures on one side, there was an increased risk of finding a similar lesion on the other side (ulcer: p < 0.0001; scarring/depigmentation: p < 0.0001; fissure: p = 0.002; erosion/contusion: p < 0.0001). At the lip commissures, external (cutaneous) ulce...
Krumrych W, Danek J, Markiewicz H, Gołyński M.The aim of this study was to analyze the chemiluminescence (CL) of peripheral blood in clinically healthy horses of different sexes and ages. The tests were carried out on 119 half- -breed horses, representing various forms of use (66 recreational horses and 53 sport horses). The test material was peripheral blood, which was collected under resting conditions, i.e. before physical activity related to the use of these animals. In the blood samples, spontaneous and stimulated CL with zymosan and phorbol myristate acetate were determined. It has been found that regular training effort increases t...
Davis JG, García-López JM.To report the findings and long-term outcome of 76 sport horses with meniscal injury. Methods: Retrospective case series. Methods: Seventy-six horses with 93 meniscal injuries in 85 stifles. Methods: Medical records of sport horses diagnosed with meniscal injury during arthroscopy were reviewed. Owner follow up was obtained via telephone interview ≥1.5 years postoperatively. Preoperative and intraoperative findings, and postoperative treatments, were analyzed for potential association with return to athletic performance. Results: The medial meniscus was involved in 82.8% of cases, with gra...
Kirsch K, Fercher C, Horstmann S, von Reitzenstein C, Augustin J, Lagershausen H.Show jumping is a highly specialized equestrian discipline that requires technical skill but also power and fitness. Monitoring the horses' aerobic performance is therefore essential in order to verify whether the training has induced the desired cardiovascular and muscular adaptations. This study therefore aimed at evaluating the validity of non-specific and discipline-specific field exercise tests for objective evaluation of aerobic performance in show jumpers. For this purpose, data obtained from horses competing at Junior and Young Rider level during show jumping competitions as well as fi...
Tavanaeimanesh H, Dashli-Boroon OJ, Corley K.Understanding the physiological and biochemical changes in racehorses can be invaluable. Accurate information in this area could result in better understanding of needs of sport horses. The aim of this study was to prove the hypothesis that biochemical changes could influence the outcome of competitions. In this study, β-endorphin was evaluated as an indicator of analgesia, lactate as an indicator of fatigue and cortisol as an indicator of stress in the first two horses and the last ones that cross the finish line. This study was performed on 44 horses participating in the 1000-meter national...
Feringer-Júnior WH, de Carvalho JRG, Moranza HG, de Almeida MLM, Lemos EGM, Soares OAB, Ribeiro G, de Camargo Ferraz G.Cost of transport (COT) and monocarboxylate transporters (MCTs) could affect the ability to perform fast actions during a jumping discipline. This study aimed to compare the COT and evaluate the MCT1, MCT4, and their auxiliary protein CD147 content in the gluteus medius and RBCs of Brazilian sport horses (BH), a breed developed for jumping competitions, with low-level (LL) or intermediate-level (IL) jumping capacities. The physiological difference between the horses was assessed by an incremental jump test (IJT), in which the cost of lactate (COT) and heart rate (COT) of running were determine...
Coelho CS, Sodre TDRP, Sousa LN, Siqueira RF, Manso Filho HC, Aragona F, Fazio F.Vaquejada is a high-intensity and short-duration exercise in which helper horses (HH) are responsible to keep a bull running in a line while pull horses (PH) work to put the bull down after 100 m of running. The purpose of this study was to quantify and compare energy expenditures (EE), transport costs (COT) and metabolic energy requirements (Pmet) of horses used in Vaquejada. Thus, eight Quarter Horses, in randomly formed pairs, performed a vaquejada simulation test (VST), which consisted of three races on a sand track (130-150 m), with a 5-min interval between them. All horses used an integr...
Jaafar SE, Al-Bayti AAH, Abdullah SI.High-power laser therapy has been used as a treatment to cure sports injuries; however, there are no controlled standardized studies on its efficacy. Moreover, high-power laser therapy has been applied for the sport horses field. This study aimed to investigate whether high-power laser therapy can cure tendon disorders and reduce the pain in tendon lesions in injured horses and also to examine the effect of laser therapy on injured horses. This retroactive experiential clinical research was performed on50 racing horses between 5 and 15 years old. They were diagnosed with neither superficial di...
de Melo UP, Ferreira C.Back pain and diseases of the spine are considered significant problems in equine sports and veterinary medicine. This article reports a multimodal approach to the treatment of equine back pain using ozonized platelet rich plasma (PRP), dynamic mobilization exercises, and therapeutic shoeing in 15 horses involved in the vaquejada discipline. Fifteen American Quarter Horses of both sexes engaged in vaquejada in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, with a mean age of 8.61 ? 1.73 years were examined at a training center for lower performance diagnostics or back pain. A complete clinical exam...
Risso A, Campos G, Garcia H, Zerpa H.Equine piroplasmosis (EP) is a tick-borne infectious disease highly prevalent in tropical and subtropical regions, such as Venezuela. EP affects wild and domestic equids leading to several clinical presentations, from asymptomatic to severely affected animals. In this study, thirty-three (33) sport horses under regular training activities and from endemic regions of north-central Venezuela were submitted to an observational survey, case-control, to describe the presence of clinical signs and natural EP infections. A conventional PCR assay targeting the SSU rRNA gene revealed EP etiologic agent...
Biau S, Burgaud I.Kinesiology taping (KT) has been used on human subjects for many years. More recently, KT has been used in sport horses. The physiological mechanisms involved remain unclear and its benefits are controversial. Objective: To investigate the effects of application of kinesiology taping to abdominal muscles on locomotor parameters before and after lungeing exercise in horses. Methods: Cross-over study. Methods: Eleven horses were tested twice, once with an application of KT without tension on abdominal muscles (condition 1) and once with a facilitation application of KT on abdominal muscles (cond...
Rowe Á, Flanagan S, Barry G, Katz LM, Lane EA, Duggan V.Warmblood Fragile Foal Syndrome (WFFS) is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by a mutation in the procollagen-lysine, 2-oxoglutarate 5-dioxygenase 1 (PLOD1) gene. Homozygosity for the mutation results in defective collagen synthesis which clinically manifests as the birth of non viable or still born foals with abnormally fragile skin. While the mutation has been identified in non Warmblood breeds including the Thoroughbred, to date all homozygous clinically affected cases reported in the scientific literature are Warmblood foals. The objective of this study was to investigate the carrier f...
Roth IT, Schielke B, Rensing M, Bernau M.To investigate differences in American Quarter Horses conformation suggesting specialization and subpopulations within the breed, a total of 45 horses were studied. These horses were classified according to their specific sport discipline: Western Pleasure (WPL, n = 15), Hunter under Saddle (HUS, n = 15), and Reining (RN, n = 15). Fifteen linear traits (comprising lengths, angles, and circumferences) were measured analogically and photometrically. Afterwards, 9 ratios and differences were calculated, so that a total of 24 traits were examined. The results showed significant differences between...
Jurjanz S, Collas C, Quish C, Younge B, Feidt C.Data on soil ingestion in horses are lacking in contrast to other free-range animals. The importance of soil as a vector for environmental pollutants to food is less relevant in horses but several disorders secondary to soil ingestion, such as sand colic or enteritis have been reported. Therefore, soil ingestion has been studied on Irish sport horses grazing at three offered levels of daily herbage: 2, 3 and 4% of their body weight. Soil ingestion was estimated by the faecal recovery of a soil natural marker. Horses had 4.5, 4.1 and 3.7% of soil in their total intake respectively for the 2, 3 ...
Janczarek I, Kędzierski W, Tkaczyk E, Kaczmarek B, Łuszczyński J, Mucha K.This study aimed to assess the impact of various types of warm-up on the metacarpal and metatarsal surface temperature in jumping sport horses in comparison to leisure horses, which work usually less intensively. Six clinically healthy sport geldings, contestants in showjumping competitions, and six geldings used for leisure riding were included in the study. The experiment was conducted for four consecutive days, during which the horses were warmed up by walking and trotting for various durations. Images were taken with a FLUKE Ti9 thermal imager to determine the resting, post-effort, and rec...
Wismann ES, Jacobsen S, Thøfner M, Ladefoged S, Ekstrøm C, Lindegaard C.Outcome after desmotomy of the accessory ligament of the deep digital flexor tendon (AL-DDFT) to treat flexural deformity of the distal interphalangeal joint has been reported to be excellent. However, no studies have compared long-term athletic performance of sport horses exposed to desmotomy of the AL-DDFT to that of matched controls. Objective: The objective of this study is to compare long-term athletic performance in sports horses subjected to desmotomy of the AL-DDFT with the performance of matched controls. Methods: This is an observational multicentre retrospective matched cohort study...
Clayton HM, St George L, Sinclair J, Hobbs SJ.Show jumping horses must execute fences of varying height and width, but the effect of this on jumping kinematics during the airborne phase have not been described. The aim of this study was to describe differences within- and between-horses in CM trajectory, trunk orientation and average trunk angular velocity in a group of elite horses executing three fences: vertical fence (1.60 m), spread fence (1.50 × 1.80 m), water jump (4.5 m) during an Olympic competition. Two-dimensional kinematic data (60 Hz) were collected from video cameras set perpendicular to each fence. After manual digitizat...
Campbell MLH.Growing ethical concern about equestrian sport is reflected in publications by regulatory authorities, animal charities, and the lay press; and in government debate and social media. However, attempts by regulators and stakeholders to address ethical issues in equine sport have been discipline specific and ad hoc. Ethical frameworks can help stakeholders to make contextual decisions about what should or should not be done in a particular situation. However, when existing animal welfare frameworks and existing sports ethics frameworks are reviewed in this paper, it becomes clear that none provi...
Wagner FC, Gerlach K, Geiger SM, Gittel C, Böttcher P, Mülling CKW.The superficial digital flexor tendon (SDFT) is the most frequently injured structure of the musculoskeletal system in sport horses and a common cause for early retirement. This project's aim was to visualize and measure the strain of the sound, injured, and healing SDFTs in a pony during walk and trot. For this purpose, biplanar high-speed fluoroscopic kinematography (FluoKin), as a high precision X-ray movement analysis tool, was used for the first time in vivo with equine tendons. The strain in the metacarpal region of the sound SDFT was 2.86% during walk and 6.78% during trot. When injured...
Hogg RC, Hodgins GA.The horse-rider relationship is fundamental to ethical equestrianism wherein equine health and welfare are prioritized as core dimensions of sporting success. Equestrianism represents a unique and important form of interspecies activity in which relationships are commonly idealized as central to sporting performance but have been largely unexplored in the sport psychology literature. Horse-rider relationships warrant particular consideration in the elite sporting context, given the tension between constructions of "partnership" between horse and rider, and the pragmatic pressures of elite spor...
MacKechnie-Guire R, Pfau T.High-level dressage horses regularly perform advanced movements, requiring coordination and force transmission between front and hind limbs across the thoracolumbosacral region. This study aimed at quantifying kinematic differences in dressage horses when ridden in sitting trot-i.e. with additional load applied in the thoracolumbar region-compared with trotting in-hand. Inertial sensors were glued on to the midline of the thoracic (T) and lumbar (L) spine at T5, T13, T18, L3 and middle of the left and right tubera sacrale of ten elite dressage horses (Mean±SD), age 11±1 years, height 1.70±0...
Dyson S, Pollard D.There is considerable debate about the social license to compete with horses and controversy about training methods for dressage horses. The objectives were to: 1. apply the Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram (RHpE) to dressage horses competing at elite Grand Prix level; 2. compare RHpE and judges' scores; and 3. document deviations in gaits from Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) guidelines. Video recordings of 147 competitors from nine World Cup competitions were assessed. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient tested the correlation between RHpE and judges' scores. The median RHpE score wa...
Bye TL, Lewis V.This study explored the relationship between footedness and postural asymmetry in equestrian riders. 28 female riders completed the Waterloo Footedness Questionnaire- Revised (WFQ-R), giving a score for footedness. They then took part in a test on a riding simulator where measures of saddle force, stirrup force, and degree of lateral tilt of the pelvic, trunk, and shoulder segments were taken over a period of 20 seconds in trot. Symmetry indices were calculated for stirrup force and saddle force. There were no significant correlations between WFQ-R score and any of the measures of postural sym...
Próchniak T, Kasperek K, Knaga S, Rozempolska-Rucińska I, Batkowska J, Drabik K, Ziȩba G.The aim of the study was to characterize the population structure and assess the genetic diversity of warmblood horses used in the show jumping discipline. Pedigree data of 1,048 horses participating in the Polish Championships for Young Horses were analyzed. The pedigree of these animals included 12 863 individuals. The study consisted in analysis of the pedigree structure of the horses and characterization of the homozygosity and genetic diversity in the population. It was found that pedigree completeness and depth were sufficient for reliable assessment of the genetic diversity in the analy...
Maśko M, Domino M, Jasiński T, Witkowska-Piłaszewicz O.Blood testing is one of the most important ways to improve performance, facilitate recovery and monitor the training of endurance and race horses. However, little is known about the physical activity-dependent changes of blood parameters in horses used for pleasure and in riding schools. This study aimed to perform routine blood tests for training monitoring of sport horses in three different horse types of use. Then the values of blood indicators were compared between school, endurance and race horses to find similarities in the physical activity-dependent profile. The study was carried out o...
Ely ER, Price JS, Smith RK, Wood JL, Verheyen KL.A previous study has identified exercise undertaken during training to be associated with racing performance in flat racehorses. However, no such studies have been conducted in National Hunt (NH) horses. Objective: To determine whether exercise undertaken during training is associated with racing performance in NH racehorses. Methods: Data were collected as part of a larger study investigating injury occurrence in NH racehorses. Race records and daily exercise data were obtained from NH racehorses at 14 training yards. Canter, gallop and race distances accumulated in the 30 days preceding a 'c...
Contino EK, King MR, Valdés-Martínez A, McIlwraith CW.Hindlimb proximal suspensory desmopathy is a common injury of sport horses but diagnosis can be difficult because diagnostic analgesia of the region lacks specificity. Perineural analgesia of the deep branch of the lateral plantar nerve (DBLPN) has been proposed as a more specific method of isolating pain of the proximal aspect of the suspensory ligament but the technique has not been evaluated in vivo. Objective: To determine the extent of diffusion of contrast medium and mepivacaine following DBLPN analgesia using a single-needle injection technique and to determine if there is inadvertent i...
Güçlü Z, Karaer Z, Babür C, Kiliç S.The aim of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in horses bred for sportive purposes in the province of Ankara. Sera collected from a total of 100 clinically healthy horses were tested for the presence of anti-Toxoplasma gondii antibodies using the Sabin-Feldman dye test and a seropositivity of 28% was found. The distribution of seropositivity among dilutions showed that 23 samples were positive at a dilution of 1:16 (82.1%), and 5 samples, positive at 1:64 (17.8%).
Figueiredo EA, Belangero PS, Cohen C, Louchard RL, Terra BB, Pochini AC, Andreoli CV, Cohen M, Ejnisman B.The aim of this study was to describe epidemiological data and evaluate the clinical results of traumatic anterior glenohumeral instability in rodeo athletes. Methods: Thirteen patients, all male, with a mean age of 23.2 (18-31) years old, with anterior glenohumeral instability were include in this study. In 9 patients, the right side was affected. The mean time elapsed between injury and undergoing surgery was 56 months (24-120 months). The surgical technique used (arthroscopic or open bone block procedure) was chosen based on the ISIS (Instability Severity Index Score). Only professional ath...
Janczarek I, Bereznowski A, Strzelec K.The aim of the study was to define the influence of the selected factors (gender, age, transportation time, riding distance and air temperature during the ride) on the cortisol secretion and finding a correlation between the hormone level and the horses' sport results (veterinary parameters and the ride route parameters). The research was performed on 38 Arabian pure breed horses taking part in the endurance rides. The cortisol level was measured with enzyme-immunological method in saliva samples, taken four times from each horse. In order to verify the differences between the mean results the...
Cottin F, Metayer N, Goachet AG, Julliand V, Slawinski J, Billat V, Barrey E.Arabian horses have morphological, muscular and metabolic features designed for endurance races. Their gas exchange and gait variables were therefore measured during a field exercise test. This study presents original respiratory and locomotor data recorded in endurance horses under field conditions. Objective: Respiratory gas exchange ratio (RER) of Arabian horses at the speed required to win endurance races (18 km/h for 120-160 km) are <1 and running economy (RE) is also low in order to maintain exercise intensity using aerobic metabolism for long intervals. The purpose of this study was to ...
Pusterla N, Kalscheur M, Peters D, Bidwell L, Holtz S, Barnum S, Lawton K, Morrissey M, Schumacher S.Little information is presently available regarding the frequency of the silent shedders of respiratory viruses in healthy sport horses and their impact on environmental contamination. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the detection frequency of selected respiratory pathogens in nasal secretions and environmental stall samples of sport horses attending a multi-week equestrian event during the summer months. Six out of fifteen tents were randomly selected for the study with approximately 20 horse/stall pairs being sampled on a weekly basis. Following weekly collection for a to...
Léguillette R, Bond SL, Lawlor K, Haan T, Weber LM.A greater understanding of exercise physiology and biochemistry is required for the sport horse disciplines, including show jumping. Conditioning of horses for show jumping is empirical because they are primarily trained on flat ground, however the equivalent workload between jumping and flat work is currently unknown. The objectives of the study were therefore to compare the physiological demands of Warmblood show jumpers over a standardized 1.10 m course vs a 600 m standardized incremental exercise test on flat ground, and to report reference field test values for competitive show jumpin...
Best R, Standing R.Global positioning systems (GPS) have recently been shown to reliably quantify the spatiotemporal characteristics of Polo, with the physiological demands of Polo play at low- and high-goal levels also investigated. This study aims to describe the spatiotemporal demands of Polo across 0-24 goal levels. A player-worn GPS unit was used to quantify distance, speed and high-intensity activities performed. Data were divided into chukkas and five equine-based speed zones, grouped per cumulative player handicap and assessed using standardized mean differences. Average distance and speed per chukka inc...
Schmutz A, Chèze L, Jacques J, Martin P.With the emergence of numerical sensors in sports, there is an increasing need for tools and methods to compute objective motion parameters with great accuracy. In particular, inertial measurement units are increasingly used in the clinical domain or the sports one to estimate spatiotemporal parameters. The purpose of the present study was to develop a model that can be included in a smart device in order to estimate the horse speed per stride from accelerometric and gyroscopic data without the use of a global positioning system, enabling the use of such a tool in both indoor and outdoor condi...
Olivier A, Viseu JP, Vignais N, Vuillerme N.Horseback riding requires the ability to adapt to changes in balance conditions, to maintain equilibrium on the horse and to prevent falls. Postural adaptation involves specific sensorimotor processes integrating visual information and somesthesic information. The objective of this study was to examine this multisensorial integration on postural control, especially the use of visual and plantar information in static (stable) and dynamic (unstable) postures, among a group of expert horse rider women (n = 10) and a group of non-athlete women (n = 12). Postural control was evaluated through the c...
Sauer FJ, Hermann M, Ramseyer A, Burger D, Riemer S, Gerber V.Sport horses need to fulfill high physical and psychological requirements during training and competition. These as well as certain conditions of modern husbandry may affect their wellbeing. Here we aimed to (1) evaluate effects of demographic and management factors as well as personality traits on stress reactivity of sport horses, (2) investigate if elite sport horses have elevated stress levels compared to amateur sport horses, and (3) assess whether different equestrian disciplines differentially influence equine adrenal cortex responsiveness. For this purpose, we visited 149 healthy elite...
Viry S, De Graaf JB, Frances JP, Berton E, Laurent M, Nicol C.The relationship between the biomechanical horse–rider interaction and endurance race performance requires further investigation. Objective: To characterise, both quantitatively and qualitatively, elite and advanced horse–rider dyads on the basis of the biomechanical horse–rider interaction during endurance races. Methods: Five elite and 5 advanced horse–rider dyads were recorded during CEI*/CEI** endurance races using 2 synchronised triaxial accelerometers each placed close to horse and rider centres of mass. Methods: For each horse–rider dyad, analyses focused on the vertical displ...
Turk R, Habuš J, Flegar-Meštrić Z, Svetina A, Mojčec V, Perkov S, Belić M, Starešina V, Turk N.The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of infection with Leptospira spp. in horses on activities of platelet-activating factor acetylhydrolase (PAF-AH) and paraoxonase-1 (PON1) considering the anti-inflammatory/anti-oxidative properties of both enzymes. A total of 63 sport and leisure horses' sera were chosen among those routinely serologically examined on leptospirosis during the year 2009 in Croatia. Sera were divided into three groups according to the estimated level of antibody titre against Leptospira spp; group 1: sera serologically negative to leptospirosis (antibody titre<5...
Haussler KK.Manual therapies involve the application of the hands to the body, with a diagnostic or therapeutic intent. Touch therapies, massage, joint mobilization, and manipulation are all critical components in the management of muscular, articular, and neurologic components of select injuries in performance horses. Musculoskeletal conditions that are chronic or recurring, not readily diagnosed, or are not responding to conventional veterinary care may be indicators that manual therapy evaluation and treatment is needed.
Ricard A, Blouin C.The longevity of sport horses is an economic and ethical issue. The aim of this study was to analyze the duration of the competitive life of jumping horses in France to assess the potential for genetic evaluation and to propose rules of management for sport horses. Data included lifetimes spent in jumping competitions for the 209,296 horses born from 1968 onward with performances between 1972 and 2008; the data set contained 22% right-censored records. Longevity was measured in years. Discrete survival analysis included fixed effects of region of birth, month of birth, year of recording, age a...
Murray JK, Singer ER, Morgan KL, Proudman CJ, French NP.Fatalities resulting from horse falls occurring during the cross-country phase of eventing competitions initiated epidemiological investigation of the risk factors associated with horse falls. Objective: To identify variables that increased or decreased the risk of a horse fall during the cross-country phase of an eventing competition. Methods: Data were collected from randomly selected British Eventing competitions held in Great Britain during 2001 and 2002. Data were obtained for 173 cases (jumping efforts resulting in a fall of the horse-and-rider partnership) and 503 matched controls (jump...
Becero M, Saitua A, Argüelles D, Sánchez de Medina AL, Castejón-Riber C, Riber C, Muñoz A.Capacitive resistive electric transfer (CRET), a radiofrequency at 448 kHz, resulted in increased superficial and deep temperature and hemoglobin saturation, faster elimination of metabolic and inflammatory products and enhanced sport performance in humans. This research aims to investigate whether the application of CRET affects the locomotor pattern in horses and to assess whether an accumulative effect appears when two CRET sessions are applied two consecutive days. Methods: Nine horses were subjected to two CRET sessions applied in both right and left sides of neck, shoulder, back and cr...
Herholz C, Straub R, Braendlin C, Imhof A, Lüthi S, Busato A.Tidal breathing flow-volume loop (TBFVL) indices in healthy horses and in horses suffering from mild and moderate to severe recurrent airway obstruction (RAO) were measured. In addition, the ability of these indices to differentiate healthy controls from horses with mild RAO by separating the horses according to their usage was investigated. The horses were assigned to three sporting categories: 1 Leisure horses; 2 Horses competing at events with a duration of more than five minutes (eventing, coaching and endurance); and 3 Horses competing at events with a duration of less than five minutes (...
Go LM, Barton AK, Ohnesorge B.Various head and neck positions in sport horses are significant as they can interfere with upper airway flow mechanics during exercise. Until now, research has focused on subjectively described head and neck positions. The objective of this study was to develop an objective, reproducible method for quantifying head and neck positions accurately. Results: Determining the angle between the ridge of the nose and the horizontal plane (ground angle) together with the angle between the ridge of nose and the line connecting the neck and the withers (withers angle) has provided values that allow preci...
Ricard A, Dumont Saint Priest B, Chassier M, Sabbagh M, Danvy S.The aim was to assess the efficiency of gaits characteristics in improving jumping performance of sport horses and confront accelerometers and judge scores for this purpose. A sample of 1,477 young jumping horses were measured using accelerometers for walk, trot, and canter. Of these, 702 were genotyped with 541,175 SNPs after quality control. Dataset of 26,914 horses scored by judges in breeding shows for gaits and dataset of 142,682 horses that performed in jumping competitions were used. Analysis of accelerometric data defined three principal components from 64% to 89% of variability explai...
O'Brien E, Stevens KB, Pfeiffer DU, Hall J, Marr CM.The aims of this study were to estimate the wastage of horses registered for eventing in Britain, to investigate the reasons for this wastage and to evaluate factors affecting the horses' achievement of grade I status (at least 61 points) while registered. An analysis of the database of the British Eventing register found that 33.7 per cent of horses registered for the first time in 1999 were not re-registered for eventing in subsequent years. By using multivariable logistic regression analysis, it was shown that horses that were kept at an event yard were more likely to be re-registered than ...
Kirsch K, Fercher C, Horstmann S, von Reitzenstein C, Augustin J, Lagershausen H.Show jumping is a highly specialized equestrian discipline that requires technical skill but also power and fitness. Monitoring the horses' aerobic performance is therefore essential in order to verify whether the training has induced the desired cardiovascular and muscular adaptations. This study therefore aimed at evaluating the validity of non-specific and discipline-specific field exercise tests for objective evaluation of aerobic performance in show jumpers. For this purpose, data obtained from horses competing at Junior and Young Rider level during show jumping competitions as well as fi...
McCoy AM, Smith RL, Herrera S, Kawcak CE, McIlwraith CW, Goodrich LR.To report the outcome of horses engaged in Western performance disciplines after stifle arthroscopy and identify prognostic factors for return to performance. Methods: Retrospective case series. Methods: Eighty-two Western performance horses undergoing stifle arthroscopy. Methods: Medical records were reviewed for horses involved in athletic performance/training for various Western performance disciplines and undergoing arthroscopy for lameness localized to the stifle. Follow-up was obtained ≥2 years postoperatively by telephone interviews with the owners. Preoperative and intraoperative f...
Oertly M, Gerber V, Anhold H, Chan DS, Pusterla N.Transportation of sporthorses increases their susceptibility to infectious diseases. Before, caretakers relied on rectal temperature together with their clinical impression to detect travel-associated infections. This study's aim was to assess and compare serum amyloid A (SAA) to rectal temperature as an indicator of early inflammation in sporthorses after air transportation. One hundred and twenty-two Warmblood horses were followed during the Longines Global Champions Tour 2016 to three destinations where the horses flew to compete. Clinical health checks and SAA measurements were performed b...
Viklund A, Näsholm A, Strandberg E, Philipsson J.For Swedish Warmblood sport horses, breeding values (BVs) are predicted using a multiple-trait animal model with results from competitions and young horse performance tests. Data go back to the beginning of the 1970s, and earlier studies have indicated that some of the recorded traits have changed through the years. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of including all performance data or excluding the older ones compared to a bivariate model (BM) considering performance traits in early and late periods as separate traits. The bivariate approach was assumed to give the mo...
